


James the Really Splendid Engine

by Tito11



Series: There Will Be No Train Sex [1]
Category: Downton Abbey, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, M/M, Trains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 23:02:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2750354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tito11/pseuds/Tito11
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jimmy is a Really Splendid Engine, and no mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	James the Really Splendid Engine

**Author's Note:**

> Edited from its original form on tumblr, because I couldn't have Carson being the Controller if I also wanted him to pull the express.

The island of Sodor is surrounded by beautiful blue sea. It has fields of green and sandy yellow beaches. There are rivers, streams, and lots of trees, where the birds sing. There are windmills and a coal mine, and docks where visitors to the island arrive. The island also has lots and lots of railway lines. 

Who's that puffing down the track?

It's Thomas!

Hello, Thomas. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Island of Sodor.

 

Toot toot! Oh look - it's James the Red Engine. James is red as a rocket and twice as grand, though usually he pulls the Slow Goods train. He's very proud of his shiny red coat, and thinking about it always makes him smile. Just now, however, he's looking quite cross.

 

Jimmy is a Really Splendid Engine, and no mistake. He has a fine scarlet coat, for one thing, and a brass dome, for another, and he doesn’t see any of those other more ordinary engines going around as fine as all that. What’s more, he’s a mixed traffic engine, so he can pull whatever he likes, so long as he likes – or so long as the Controller likes, anyway. Of course, it does mean he gets stuck pulling trucks more often than not (them with their shoving and giggling and trouble-making), and that he could without.

“You shouldn’t let them rile you,” Thomas tells him sometimes when they’re settling down for the night in Downton Sheds and Jimmy’s finally got time to complain about his day. “These things can be managed, but not if you’re constantly getting yourself into trouble over it.”

He’s right, of course, and with clever as Thomas is, they should between the two of them be able to work out some sort of scheme for dealing with it all. But at the same time, it’s bloody easy for Thomas to talk, isn’t it, what with him having his own branch line and two coaches all his own. Anna and Daisy can be right pains when they want to be and their niceness is a bit wearing, but Jimmy’d take them over the damn trucks any day.

He doesn’t have that option, though, does he? And it’s not his imagination, he’s sure of it, that the Controller sends him more on more runs with the trucks than he does any other engine. After one particularly grueling trek – in which he’s been bumped and shoved and insulted more times than he can count – he seeks a moment’s refuge in the sheds, where at least he knows no one will come looking for him right away. It’s terrible hard being such a Splendid Engine, he thinks as he watches Thomas being kitted out to make his next run.

Now Thomas – he’s a Really Useful Engine. A cheeky sod, to be sure, but useful all the same. He knows what he’s about, is the thing, and it’s put him in Earl Robert’s good books, even if the Controller doesn’t take notice. Thomas does get himself in a fair number of scrapes, but he’s rarely caught out by anyone who matters, and he’s always on time with deliveries, besides. And he’s cheeky enough to keep the trucks mostly at bay, which is the important thing.

Also, Thomas is absolutely tops at puffing steam.

“How do you do that, though, Thomas?” Jimmy asks him, abandoning his hiding spot and chugging up beside his pal.

Thomas looks at him, bemused but still somehow soppy in that way he always is about Jimmy.

"What’s that?" he chuffs.

"Your steam," Jimmy clarifies. "You puff more than anyone in the depot, don’t you. How do you do that?"

“Oh,” Thomas wheeshes after a moment’s thought. “Dunno, really. It’s my fireman, isn’t it? Keeps on working all the time, shovelin’ in the coal. Industrious sort, I suppose.”

With the way Thomas huffs and puffs, he’d have to be, really, but Jimmy would just as soon his own fireman gave up with all the fire-building and took up polishing Jimmy’s dome and touching up his lovely red coat of paint, instead. When he says this, though, Thomas just gives him a look – something between knowing and fond that makes Jimmy just puff with happiness.


End file.
